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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Theory Meets Practice

Doctor Marvin Meadows snickered as his SUV plowed over the seventh "Road Closed" sign in as many miles. The signs were ludicrous and insulting at best.

It was absurd that a brilliant theoretical physicist, such as himself, should have his movements constrained by a bunch of salt-slinging neanderthals.

There was a vast fleet of alien vessels, with probable hostile intentions, proceeding on a direct course towards Earth. Was he expected to hope they would delay their arrival until such time as the minions of the Highway Department deemed it prudent for him to be out and about? Ridiculous!!

Without the equations he had spent the night resolving, Humanity's long-term prospects for survival were rather dismal. He would see them delivered to the engineering monkeys without any bureaucratic delays.

Turning left, he surged onto the bridge with a spray of slush and gravel. It was a textbook demonstration of Newtonian physics when his vehicle failed to negotiate the turn and, instead, sailed right off into thin air.

Plunging downward, he contemplated the tragedy of it all. While it was, vaguely, conceivable that a legion of lesser minds might duplicate his work, eventually, he seriously doubted they would have the time required.